Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Beast That Ate My Living Room

I have been redecorating our upstairs landing/ foyer/ office for many months. The redecorating takes only a few minutes; the getting rid of years of paperwork and crap takes long hours of sorting, shredding and sneaking things out of the house to the thrift store after H-Mama has left for work. The shredding my kids warmed right up to. Monito is afraid of the little shredder, but is happy to collect scraps of any paper to hand to his braver sister who sends it on through the machine with glee.

In the original space design, only now beginning to be realized, there is a desk with my computer on it, a gas stove that looks like a wood stove but is on a thermostat, a book shelf for kids books and some comfortable seating for kids to snuggle into as they hunker down and read for hours like I used to. Lets set aside the fact that my kids are, at this age, so very uninclined to sit and read to themselves that it is a folly to design around the future book addictions that I want them to have.

So I posted on Freecycle that I wanted a bean bag or two for my kids to snuggle into because they cost twenty dollars or more at Target and I'm cheap. What I received has me crying for mercy. I fetched one today from a lovely woman a couple miles from my house; she was so ecstatic to see me arrive that I should have known something was up. She pulled from underneath her ping pong table one of the two bean bags that I agreed to take off her hands, and I stopped short. "Um, I'm going to have to return tomorrow for the other one" I said one I caught my breath. It is massive, and according to the Interwebs it is around $257 per bag. I was barely able to fit it into my Volvo wagon back end; note the stroller mashed against the side of the car in the picture below.I'm sure Sandy got them on sale, but still. The one in my living room is so big that it will make 4 or 5 kid-sized chairs when I make attractive covers out of a nice neutral linen I've selected. The other one? I've committed to go fetch it tomorrow. I'm looking for a home for it. Speak up if you want it. I can't sell it, since I got it for free, but I'm not sure I know anyone who has room for it.

It took the kids a few minutes to figure out how to get on it, but Pequita decided that launching off the full-sized wing back chair already in our living room would work. She then figured out that getting out wasn't an option, and asked me to bring her the babies so she could play with them in the chair.

Wow, this is a great play seat! What every child needs- a place to jump without parents yelling, "NO Jumping!" It does look like it takes a fair amount of space however. I can see why some do not choose to have one. How much does it weigh?

About Me

I'm a suburban woman on a quest for the simple life on our 10 acres in the Fingerlakes region of New York. I am living the dream and staying home to raise my two kids while my wife and I try to renovate our 150 year old farmhouse and keep the grapevines from consuming the house. We are a free-range family, and I spend my days with the kids crafting, gardening, canning fruit, and keeping the peace. Some days I'm lucky enough to fit in a little knitting.